A Michigan man considered to be one of the world’s most prolific spammers has been indicted along with 10 others, the U.S. Department of Justice announced last week.
Alan Ralsky, his son-in-law Scott Bradley and Judy Devenow, of Michigan, and eight others of various nationalities were indicted for — among other things — allegedly using so-called pump-and-dump spam to tout Chinese penny stocks, inflate their value and then sell the stocks at artificially inflated prices.
“Today’s charges seek to knock out one of the largest illegal spamming and fraud operations in the country, an international scheme to make money by manipulating stock prices through illegal spam e-mail promotions,” U.S. Attorney Stephen Murphy of Detroit said in a statement
Ralsky — who is listed as No. 1 on anti-spam Web site Spamhaus’ list of most prolific spammers — has been profiled in mainstream news outlets as an unapologetic sender of millions of unsolicited e-mail messages.
“I’ll never quit. I like what I do. This is the greatest business in the world,” Ralsky reportedly bragged to Detroit Free Press columnist Mike Wendland in 2002.
He has also been the target of numerous anti-spam efforts.
Verizon sued Ralsky in 2001 claiming he crippled its networks with unsolicited e-mail. He settled, promising not to spam Verizon’s 1.6 million customers.
The indictment, unsealed last week, comes after a three-year investigation, according to the Department of Justice.
It charges Ralsky and the others with falsifying headers, using proxy computers to relay spam, using falsely registered domain names to send spam and using false advertising inn some of the messages.
Also named in the indictment were: John S. Bown, of Poway, CA; William C. Neil, of Fresno, CA; Anki K. Neil, of Fresno, CA; James E. Bragg, of Queen Creek, AZ; James E. Fite, of Whittier, CA; Peter Severa, of Russia, How Wai John Hui, of Vancouver, Canada and Hong Kong; and Francis. Tribble, of Los Angeles.
Bradley, Devenow and Hui were arrested last week and the others are being sought, according to the Department of Justice.
Ralsky was reportedly out of the country last week, but planned to voluntarily turn himself in and fight the charges, the most serious of which — wire and mail fraud — carry a maximum sentence of 20 years in prison and a $250,000 fine.
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